Last month, in a surreal turn of events, I filmed something really fun with Netflix. It wasn’t an actual TV show, but Netflix did build us a set, filmed us with 4 different cameras, and made us feel like the stars that we aren’t.

The premise of the Netflix Dinner Party was simple – our gracious host Andrew Dobson of Dobbernation Loves invited a few friends over for yummy bites and dishy conversation – unscripted and raw. We chatted about our fave Netflix shows like The Crown, Grace and Frankie, Riverdale, Stranger Things, Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Santa Clarita Diet, and Orange is the New Black, all while enjoying delicious food, and sipping beer through straws (ridiculous, I know…but lipstick stayed on and that’s all that matters!). We discussed pressing issues like “what would your dream vibrator look like?”, “who would you invite to your royal wedding?”, and “how would you kill your zombie boyfriend?”…After watching the zombie episode, le bf was extra nice to me all week…perhaps because of how quickly I answered that question? Either way, he shouldn’t worry as long as he doesn’t start exhibiting zombie-like symptoms. In other news, my Putin statue went mysteriously missing.

Anyway, now that all 7 mini episodes are available, I thought I’d share them here. Hope you enjoy watching these as much as we enjoyed filming them. If you only choose to watch one…I suggest the “Dream Vibrator” epi, so that you can watch Jonathan say “Netflix and Drill” with a straight face.

Earlier this month, my fellow Canon Blogtographers and I were treated to a second photo session with fashion photographer Steve Carty, this time learning all about portrait photography. Right in time for the holiday get-togethers, where photos will inevitably get snapped, but not always ones you would want to keep. Steve showed us how to get the winning shot that your family and friends will keep and treasure for years to come!

To learn a bit about portrait photography, our assignment for the evening was to shoot a head-on portrait in black and white, shoot a holiday portrait, a holiday scene at a dinner table, and finally a portrait with very low light. Here’s what I learned about getting THE SHOT!

1. Use Creative Filters

One of the best things I learned about my Canon camera is that I don’t need to use Photoshop to spice up my photos with cool effects. With fun creative filters like Toy Camera, Monochrome, Fish Eye, Soft Focus, Grainy Black and White, which can also be layered, you can take any photo from boring to awesome. When using these Creative Filters in-camera, you don’t have to worry about losing your original image, because your camera will save an edited copy automatically. I used the Grainy Black and White filter on the below photo, and love how it turned out!

2. Crop It

As I mentioned before, Rule of Thirds is a good one to follow. You can make any photo stand out by simply cropping it to make sure that the eye is drawn to the subject of the photo and not to the background or other random things in the picture. You can achieve this without having to do any post-production work by using various aspect ratios in-camera. If you want your image to be perfect for Instagram, use 1:1, want a standard image – use 4:3, want your photo to look good on a widescreen display – 16:9 is your go-to aspect ratio.

WHAT I WORE

WHO IS NELIA?

Nelia Belkova is a Toronto-based fashion and lifestyle blogger by night and a financial analyst by day. She loves to travel, read gossip sites, eat sweets, and cuddle up to her husband and her cat on the couch. Read More…